MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Nano Postcards

Good morning, everyone!

I have to say I'm having a blast playing again. Especially in things that get messy, like today's mixed media project. - Postcards

I participate in National Novel Writing Month every November. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days.... the length of the book, Moby Dick. This is to be a first draft, dump the story from your brain and get it down on paper. Perfection and editing are for another time.

Like most places on the internet, Nano has a massive amount of forums/ threads to connect with other like-minded people. One group I found this year was a Post Card swap. we are assigned 5 people to swap with. We send them a postcard with words of encouragement for the Nano battle. The postcards may be purchased or handmade. Well... we know which one I'm going to do! LOL

This was the front of my postcard. This swap gave me the opportunity to play with stamps I've not touched in ages!

I started with one of my favorite techniques - shaving cream marbling:

I swirled then pressed 12 postcard bases which I'd made by gluing 2 pieces of cardstock together using Modge Podge. They needed to be sturdy. One card was destined for Spain.

Lined up on waxtex on the ironing board to dry:

I sponged ink on the back side to tone down the white.

Finished and ready for addresses:

You'll notice the one in the foreground is different. That's because I messed up and put the images on the wrong side. LOL The rest are done the way I'd intended. 

As I said, I'm getting play time in again. Probably not a good plan since I'm supposed to be writing Book 2 but it's so hard to concentrate when Bob is home :-)

Tomorrow will be our monthly Card Chicks cards. I made three from Suzy's kit. Can't wait to share!

Creative Blessings!

WOYWW #492

Good morning, crafters. I skipped last week as I was up to my elbows in apple pie filling. I hope to finish that project today then move on to apple sauce.
Not a lot of crafting as I've been battling a sinus infection, which I think is on its way out. Yay!!

So my desk this morning:

On the upper left of the TH mat, you'll see some mixed media postcards. I took part in a NanoWrimo Postcard swap last week. I make all of my items in sets of 12 so I have a few left over. If you are participating in NanoWrimo and would like one of these, please look for me on Nano - RainLyte - and let me know you saw the swap here. I have to reserve a couple for Angel Swaps but should still have 2 or 3 left for sharing with deskers.

Center of the mat are the easel cards I made for the September Christmas FB challenge. We were to create (4) 3-D cards. This month's (and our final)  challenge is to make (4) Christmas ornaments. That will give me a head start on the art tree I want to put up in the office this year. 

The rest is just this and that I need to put away. Oh yeah, and the ever present box of tissues. I don't know if I've gone through more tissues due to the sinus infection or the vast amount of Hallmark Holiday movies I've been watching in my lazy/ medicated state the past couple of weeks. 

That's it for my desk this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground  for all the details. Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you.  Please leave your number and you'll be among the first on my list. 

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

PLACE SETTING GIFTS

When not crafting, I am writing. Okay, I'm writing more than I craft these days. I belong to a group called Sleuth's Ink. This was our fourth year having a month-long writing event called JANO.. a take of NANO aka National Novel Writing Month. Except we do it in January (AFTER the holiday crazies) and we have an extra day to write. The GOAL... write 50 thousand words of a new (or tack onto an existing) novel in 31 days.

I opened mouth-inserted foot last February and offered to be the JANO 2013 Chair person. I ENJOYED the opportunity to serve my group. Since I live a long distance from our base location of Springfield MO, I don't take on board positions. But with the promise from a great on-sight committee, I figured I could do this. And I did.

Saturday, February 2nd was the culmination of our month-long event. 21 people attended a catered dinner. The food at TheEventPlace was AWESOME! (Thanks Jill!). We also announced winners of various categories such as Best First Pages, Best First Line, First to 50 thousand, etc. These categories as well as a host of others and on-going raffles throughout the night for door prizes, no one went home empty handed.

Every year we get these cute little notepads with our JANO logo at the top. Former chairpersons told me to 'put my own spin' on the event this year. Being a paper crafter, you know where that led me. Right down to the studio where I created these fun little 'suit pockets' to hold not only the note pad, but a pen, Gheradelli chocolate and three raffle tickets.  The logo is our SI group logo.

I have to give a big thank you to my SIL, Kelly Bay. When we visited her last fall she gave me her Scor Pal. I don't know how long it would have taken me to make 24 of these rosettes if it hadn't been for the Scor Pal.

I used SU Black and Poppy Parade. These are made from an 8.5x11 and are 5.5" tall. I scored 3" in from each end (laying horizontal). Then cut a V in the center section.. down 2.5" I believe. I made these at about 10 p.m. on Friday night LOL.. the night before I needed them. Yep... I do everything in crunch mode. It's how I work. 

With JANO out of the way, I can get the blog back on schedule... hopefully :-)

Keep Creating!

Kelly